The unemployment rate in Tallahatchie County fell from 6.2% in April to 5.9% in May, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security has reported.
The MDES, which compiles the state’s employment data, noted that 310 members of the county’s 5,180-person labor force were unemployed in May. The labor force consists of everyone who has a job or is actively looking for one.
In April, 320 of 5,170 Tallahatchie County labor force members were jobless.
The county’s May unemployment rate was 1.5% lower than the 7.4% figure recorded in May 2020, when 400 of 5,330 available laborers 16 and older did not find work.
Mississippi’s jobless rate rose from 5.9% in April to 6.1% in May. However, it remained 5.4% lower than the pandemic-impacted 11.5% rate recorded in May 2020.
The MDES reported that the number of unemployed persons in Mississippi decreased by 1,000 from April to May, while the total number of the employed rose by 300 over the period.
Thirty-four of the state’s 82 counties posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state’s rate of 6.1%.
Nationally, the jobless rate fell from 5.7% in April to 5.5% in May and showed an improvement of 7.5% from the May 2020 rate of 13.0%.
The May unemployment rates for selected area counties, with April figures in parenthesis, are:
» Coahoma, 9.7 (9.3)
» Grenada, 5.4 (5.5)
» Lafayette, 4.9 (4.5)
» Leflore, 9.2 (8.9)
» Panola, 8.0 (7.7)
» Quitman, 9.3 (9.4)
» Sunflower, 10.2 (9.8)
» Yalobusha, 6.4 (5.8)
At 18.1%, Jefferson County had the state’s highest jobless rate in May. Rankin County’s 3.8% was the lowest.
